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Finally got the 1910 census update finished!

Part One Hundred Thirty-Seven: The Great War Census

The 1910 Census:
In the first decade of the 20th century, the United States was still in flux as a nation. The country was still urbanizing rapidly as the industrial economy continued to outpace the growth of agriculture in many of the Northern states. This was greatly reflected in the 1910 census, as New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri, and other industrial states continued to grow at a larger rate than much of the rest of the country. The biggest milestone of the census, however, was in the national figure. In 1910, for the first time, the population of the United States as a whole surpassed one hundred million people. At the time, the total population of the country as recorded by the census was 103,867,000.

While these states did grow, New York grew at a noticeably slower rate than the other major industrial states. The Great War had a large part to play in this, as it did in the reported population of many other states that bordered British North America. The war had diverted some potential routes for immigrants away from the northernmost states as they became fronts on the war between the United States and Great Britain. However, this was not the only reason in New York's case. For the Empire State, the changing economic landscape of the county also played a significant role. With railroads having thoroughly supplanted rivers and canals as the primary means of transporting goods, the Erie Canal saw its importance decline. Coupled with the tensions along the Great Lakes, cities such as Syracuse and Rochester that had boomed during the height of the Erie Canal's traffic began to stagnate and decline in the early 20th century. New York City, Brooklyn, and Long Island continued to grow steadily through inertia as the largest urban area in the country. However, the 1890s and 1900s would be the peak of the Brooklyn-NYC area's growth. Economic activity continued to move south to better rail-connected ports such as Philadelphia and Baltimore, and a significant portion of exports from the Old Northwest and Great Plains would go through those ports and the Gulf of Mexico in future decades. As such, New York perhaps passed its height of economic importance with the 1910 census. Though the twin cities of New York and Brooklyn would continue to grow in population for another half century, the rate of growth of the population in that region would enter a steady decline after 1910.

The greatest focus when examining the 1910 census, however, is the impact the Great War had on its conduct and results. This was the first national census in the United States conducted during serious wartime. With the largest threat to the United States coming from its northern border during the Great War, the census of those states that bordered the more populated regions of British North America are believed to have been undercounted during this census. This certainly was the belief at the time following the Great War, and is the commonly held belief by population historians now. Stories of census workers avoiding towns sitting close to the border for fear of British raids, plus the American territorial gains in the Great War, created a controversy when it came time to apportion the seats in the House of Representatives and the electoral votes to each state.

The underreporting of the population on the northern border would certainly explain some apparent oddities that showed up in the 1910 census. For instance, Colorado with its 1.22 million people had supposedly surpassed both Itasca and Marquette in population in 1910. It is clear that the silver rush had led to a boom in Colorado's population, coupled with the state being the western edge of the more southerly railroads in the United States until the acquisition of California. However, there is a healthy skepticism as to the figures for the populations of Itasca and Marquette as reported by the 1910 census. Surely, the boom in iron and copper in that region in the two decades previously produced a similar population boom as the silver rush in Colorado had. The numbers for both states, hovering just above 1.1 million, produced complaints by politicians from those two states to Congress almost as soon as they were reported. The figures do seem small, especially as the census showed neighboring Demoine as having 1.47 million people when all three states had been roughly equal populations the decade prior. Frank Kellogg, attorney general of Itasca at the time, brought a case against the Census Bureau for alleged underrepresentation in 1912 following the end of the Great War. Itasca believed that the 1910 Census had undercounted Itasca's population by enough that the state deserved one more representative in the House and one more vote in the electoral college. Ultimately the case did not affect the 1912 election as the Supreme Court ruled in 1913 that the issue was a political matter and non-justiciable. Kellogg ended up bringing up the issue again in 1914, having been elected Senator from Itasca in 1912. During his term as Senator, Kellogg and other Congressmen from border states pushed legislation through to hold a special mid-decade Census to correct the population count. It would also account for the addition of the territory annexed from Great Britain during the war. This change to the census was coupled with an increase in the size of the House of Representatives, which also had not occurred in the aftermath of the census of 1910 due to the bickering among Congress as to the appropriate size of the chamber.

While the northern border states saw questionable growth during the first decade of the 20th century, the Mid-Atlantic and the states along the Ohio saw a continuation of the previous decade's growth. The reorientation of trade to the Confluence area and to harbors further south on the Atlantic seaboard continued as the Great War was fought further north benefiting the states in the middle of the country. Cities such as Baltimore, Saint Louis, and Cairo saw increased commercial opportunities as the mining and forestry industries further north continued the flow of natural resources to them. The Great War also saw a boom in manufacturing in these cities as the United States ramped up its war production.

In addition to the growth of the "Middle American" cities as the cities between the 38th and 40th parallel began to be known[1], the states further west also benefited from the growth of the United States in the early 20th century. The profitable logging and mining industries in the northwest led to massive growth in Oregon, Kootenay, and Champoeg during this time as settlers from back east flocked to the Pacific coastal states. While they were on the border with British North America and California, the front in terms of the American side of the border was relatively quiet compared to the rest of the Great War. Washington experienced a brief decline in population due to the fear of more British raids. However, the other northwestern states continued to experience a flood of settlement and many cities in the region saw a doubling or tripling of the population between 1900 and 1910. Similarly, Colorado continued to grow quickly despite the war with California and the decline of the silver boom. Many mining towns switched to more utilitarian operations producing coal, lead, and nickel and their supply centers in the foothills saw a rejuvenated economic boom as these goods were sent east to help with the industrial war economy.

[1] I'm not quite happy with this name for the region, but I couldn't think of anything better.

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And as a bonus, here's the list of United States cities over 500,000 people in 1910. Notably, New York City has surpassed two million people and Boston has dropped out of the ten largest cities. Boston has been replaced by Louisville, KY which is benefiting from the shifting economy.